What is SSH?

Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol that provides secure command-line access to your Hosting account. By using SSH, you can remotely log in to your Hosting account and run commands as if you were sitting right at the server. SSH is only available with Linux hosting packages. Windows SSH clients can be used to access Linux servers. Hosting does not support SSH’s predecessor, telnet. Telnet traffic is not encrypted and therefore is not secure. [Read more]

Using an SSH Client

Follow the appropriate procedure below for your computer’s operating system.

Windows operating systems

Windows 10

Recent updates of Windows 10 include the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) which provides a convenient way to run Linux commands. Installation instructions for the WSL are available here. Once the WSL is installed, you can connect to your account with SSH by following these steps:

1. Open the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + r.
2. In the Run dialog box type bash and then click OK to start the bash shell.
3. Type the following command at the command line. Replace username with your Hosting username, and replace example.com with your site’s domain name:

   ssh -p [email protected]

4. Type your password when you are prompted to do so and then press Enter.
5. When the remote server’s command line prompt appears, you are connected. The initial command line prompt is:

   [email protected] [~]#

6. You can now run commands. For example, to see a listing of the current directory, type ls and then press ENTER.
7. To close the SSH connection when you are done, type exit and then press ENTER.
8. To close the bash shell, type exit and then press ENTER.

Other Windows versions

Older versions of Microsoft Windows do not include an SSH client, so you must download an SSH client first. Hosting recommends PuTTY, a free program that you can download here. After you have downloaded the PuTTY executable to your local computer, you can use it to connect to your Hosting account.

To connect to your account using PuTTY, follow these steps:

1. Start PuTTY.
2. In the Host Name (or IP address) text box, type [email protected]. Replace username with your Hosting username, and example.com with your site’s domain name.
3. The default port for SSH is 22. However, Hosting uses a different port for security reasons.
4. Confirm that the Connection type radio button is set to SSH.
5. Click Open.
6. A PuTTY security alert about the server’s host key appears the first time you connect. Click Yes.
7. Type your account password and then press ENTER.
8. When the remote server’s command line prompt appears, you are connected. The initial command line prompt is:

   [email protected] [~]#

9. You can now run commands. For example, to see a listing of the current directory, type ls, and then press ENTER.
10. To close the SSH connection when you are done, type exit and then press ENTER.

Mac OS X and Linux operating systems

Both Mac OS X and Linux include SSH clients, so connecting to your Hosting account on these operating systems is easy. You do not have to download a special client.

To connect to your account, follow these steps:

• Open a terminal window. The procedure to do this depends on the operating system and desktop environment.
  • On Mac OS X, click Applications, click Utilities and then click Terminal.
• At the command prompt, type the following command. Replace username with your Hosting username, and example.com with your site’s domain name:

  ssh -p username@example.com

  The default port for SSH is 22. However, Hosting uses a different port for security reasons.
• Type your password when you are prompted to do so.
• When the remote server’s command line prompt appears, you are connected. The initial command line prompt is:

  [email protected] [~]#

• You can now run commands. For example, to see a listing of the current directory, type ls and then press ENTER.
• To close the SSH connection when you are done, type exit and then press ENTER.

  In the command in step 2, we explicitly specify the port number, the username, and the hostname. However, you can also define these settings for a remote host in your ~/.ssh/config file as follows:

  Host example
      Hostname example.com
      Port 22
      User username

  Host value can be any name you want; it is simply a label for the other settings.

  Hostname value is the remote host you want to access

  Port The default port for SSH is 22. However, Hosting uses a different port for security reasons.

  User value specifies your Hosting account username.

   

In case you have any other questions, please reach out to us via:

• Ticket system (highly recommended)
• Email us at [email protected]